46 
SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
day the morais and hevas were destroyed or desecrated, and 
nothing remained but the places where the bones of some 
of the chiefs were deposited, and a few of the ancient priest¬ 
hood, who were appointed to watch the relics. 
This act was accompanied by another of equal import¬ 
ance, which has been strangely misrepresented by at least 
one English traveller. The breaking the tabu, by which 
women were prohibited from eating with men, or tasting of 
certain kinds of food, has been represented as a mere frolic 
of the young king. But the measure had been concerted 
with the chiefs, and its importance well weighed. The 
women of the Sandwich Islands, though acknowledged as 
chiefs, and admitted to council, had still the degrading mark 
of inferiority in their separate meals and prohibited sorts of 
food. To raise them to a better state was doubtless a strong 
motive with the young king, who revered his mother, and 
was passionately attached to his young wife; but he also 
desired to get rid, as soon and as much as possible, of every 
part of the system of tabu, which he wisely considered as 
highly inimical to the progress of civilization. 
The manner in which it w T as carried into effect is charac¬ 
teristic of the simplicity of a people just emerging from bar¬ 
barism. On occasion of a great feast, the people, totally 
ignorant of the intentions of the chiefs, were, as usual, col- 
